“School-leavers are bright, motivated and willing to learn,” says PwC

In a move to boost social mobility and diversity within its organisation, international business consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has created a higher level apprenticeship for learners to achieve chartered professional status.

According to the Guardian, the postgraduate scheme is part of the government’s £25m Higher Apprenticeship Fund which intends to create more than 20,000 higher apprenticeship starts by 2015.

Sara Caplan, PwC partner for education and skills, says: “Our challenge is recruiting from as diverse a background as possible so that we have fresh thinking and new approaches. We want to have as many different types of people as possible.”

“We are still recruiting over a thousand grads a year, but we find school-leavers are bright, motivated and willing to learn. They have often had to overcome parental and peer pressure to go to uni, and they have a tremendous will to succeed.”